3) Embracing the collar, by Shawnthea Monroe. “'What's with the collar?' asked a UCC colleague. 'Did you lose a bet?' I smiled and explained that this was my Lenten discipline: wearing a collar for 40 days.”

4) Remembering Will Campbell, by Frank G. Honeycutt. “Campbell got into trouble in lots of different ways. As a seminarian, I was particularly impressed that he dared to drink whiskey with the Klan.”

5) When Antoinette Tuff saw a gunman as a human being, by Bromleigh McCleneghan. “Michael Brandon Hill walked into the office of a large elementary school on Tuesday, armed to the teeth. Tuff saw Hill as a hurting young man, and she responded by engaging him in conversation.”

6) My companion at table, by Martha Spong. “My daughter and I talk and Skype and text. We know when we will see each other next. But I miss her most on Sundays.”

7) Christmas music, Advent words, by Katherine Willis Pershey. “My first Advent as a pastor, I was mildly horrified that the church’s songs and sanctuary didn’t match the biblical and liturgical tradition. Now I’m kind of horrified by the ideological neophyte that I was.”

8) Macklemore's theology, by Tyler Day. “A theology professor of mine liked to remind our class that everyone’s a theologian. I don’t think he meant that everyone’s a particularly good theologian.”